After We Fall

by Melanie Harlow

  I knew what he meant, and it made me smile through tears.

  He smiled too. “I want a new start, Margot. And I want you there with me. Say you’ll give me a chance.”

  “Oh, Jack,” I said softly. “That’s all I ever wanted. I know I can’t be your first love, but—”

  “Shh.” He put a finger over my lips. “I’m not looking for my first love. I’m looking for my last.”

  He leaned over and put his lips on mine. It was a sweet, soft, still kiss—but it was more than that. It was an apology, a promise, a new start. It spoke of letting go, of moving on, of falling in love. I shivered, and Jack put an arm around me. “You cold?”

  “Not at all,” I said, feeling warmth flow throughout my body. “Now I want to know how you found me.”

  Jack grinned sheepishly. “Your friend Jaime.”

  “Jaime!” I yelped. “She said she was too sick to come tonight!”

  “She gave me her ticket.”

  I shook my head, trying to piece it together. “So you called her?”

  “Yes. Last night. I was trying to think of a way to surprise you, and Georgia gave me her number.”

  I giggled, my whole body tingling. “Oh my God, this happened in one night? It worked. I’m surprised.”

  He just smiled at me for a moment, almost a little sadly. “I missed that laugh. I was scared I’d never hear it again.”

  “Now you can hear it as much as you want.”

  “I wanted to tell you.” He cleared his throat. “I’m moving into the house. I decided to buy out Pete and Georgia so they can afford the Oliver place.”

  Squealing, I threw both my arms around his neck. He smelled delicious, and I breathed him in deeply. “Oh my God, that’s amazing! I’m so proud of you.”

  His arms closed around me. “Thanks. I wouldn’t have done any of it if it wasn’t for you.”

  Unwilling to let go, I kept my chest pressed to his. “I feel like we have so much to catch up on.”

  “It’s all good stuff.”

  “Pete and Georgia must be so happy.”

  “They are. And it’s only possible because of Brad. He said he’d wait a little longer for me to buy him out so that I could afford to make this happen.”

  Reluctantly, I stopped strangling him and sat back. “I’m so happy for you. And for them. That’s wonderful about Brad, too.”

  Jack nodded. “For the first time in years, I feel like I can breathe. Like I have something to look forward to.”

  I couldn’t stop smiling. “You don’t know how happy this makes me.”

  He hauled me across his lap, and I looped my arms around his neck. “You don’t know how beautiful you are when you’re happy. I want to put that smile on your face every day.” His brow furrowed. “But I’m hoping I don’t have to wear this suit to do it.”

  Laughter bubbled out of me. “You can do it in nothing, believe me—and you’re going to.”

  “Hell yes I am,” he drawled. “The sooner the better.”

  “Not so fast, cowboy. You’re wearing the hell out of that suit, and I need to get my fill before I take it off you, one piece at a time.” I leaned back and admired him, my belly fluttering. “I didn’t even think you owned one.”

  “I didn’t.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Jaime?”

  “And Quinn. Nice guy. Knows a lot about clothes.” He shook his head. “Mostly I just stood still and let them dress me.”

  “They did it well. When I saw you walking across the room toward me, I swooned. Nearly fell right over.”

  “I’d have caught you.” His arms tightened around me. “I’ll always catch you.”

  I’ll always catch you, too, I thought as our lips met again. Now let yourself fall.

  Thirty-Five

  Margot

  I didn’t want to stay at the event very long, but I did want to introduce Jack to my family. We found my father schmoozing a few voters in the Great Hall, and he shook Jack’s hand enthusiastically when he heard Jack owned a farm. Dad probably thought I was helping him “shore up the base” with the introduction, but that was OK. Eventually I’d explain to him that Jack wasn’t Big Ag and probably didn’t have the same views on farming policy he did, but for now it was enough that they’d met.

  My brother Buck raised an eyebrow at me when I introduced Jack as my date, maybe because I hadn’t brought a date to a function like this since Tripp. But ever the charmer, he gave Jack his hand and a slap on the back like he was an old prep school buddy. When my brother learned Jack lived near Lake Huron, they talked for a few minutes about fishing on the Great Lakes, something they both enjoyed. Never mind that as kids Jack had worked on the boats while Buck had chartered them—it was something they had in common, and I was glad for it. Flashing Buck a grateful smile, we moved on to my mother.

  Muffy was still in the Rivera Court. Near the bar, of course. “Mother, this is my friend Jack Valentini. Jack this is my mother, Muffy Lewiston.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Muffy extended a hand, and Jack took it as she scrutinized him. “Valentini, did you say? Good heavens, what a lot of syllables.”

  I rolled my eyes. Muffy had a thing about syllables in a last name. One or two was ideal, three was fine as long as it didn’t end in a vowel, but four—plus the vowel at the end—was just too much.

  “Uh, yes.” Jack looked at me for help.

  “Jack owns and runs Valentini Brothers Farm in Lexington. That’s where I was earlier this month.”

  Muffy reacted as if I’d said something absurd. “You were on a farm?”

  “Yes. Doing some work for Shine. I told you that, Mother.”

  She studied him again. “He doesn’t look like a farmer.”

  “I thought the same thing when I met him.” I gave him a quick smile. “Would you excuse us? I think we’re going to head out.”

  “Of course.” Muffy dismissed us with a nod.

  “Nice to meet you,” offered Jack. “Wow,” he said when we’d left the room. “For a small woman, she looks like she’s got bones of steel.”

  I laughed as we headed for the museum valet. “She might.”

  “How’d I do?”

  “Fantastic. Were you nervous?”

  “I’m sweating bullets. I kept feeling like everyone was looking at me.”

  “Aww.” Hooking my arm through his, I hugged it to me. “You have nothing to worry about. They were dazzled by your looks, and by the fact that there was a new face here. These things are always attended by the same people.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” After we handed our tickets to the valet, we went outside to wait for them to pull our cars around. I turned to Jack and smoothed his lapels. “Thank you for coming tonight. I know it wasn’t easy in there.”

  “It’s a different world for me, that’s for sure.”

  “Like me in the chicken coop.”

  He laughed and dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “Right. And you know what this means, don’t you?”

  “What?”

  “Camping.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Oh yeah. But not tonight, right?”

  He laughed again, and I knew I’d never get tired of that sound as long as I lived. “Not tonight. Tonight I have a Luxury King room at the MGM Grand,” he teased. “Would you like to stay with me?”

  “Did you say luxury? That’s like my favorite word.” I fanned myself and whispered, “I’m so turned on right now.”

  “Good.” He pulled me close. “Because I’ve got plans for you.”

  I shivered. “What kind of plans?”

  “The kind where I make you come all night long, scream my name and beg for more.”

  I swooned.

  This time he caught me.

  The elevator at the MGM was crowded, and Jack pulled me back against him. “So many people,” he said low in my ear. I thought he meant that there were too many people for him to be comfortable, but then he said, “Do you think they know what I’m going to do to you
?”

  I froze, my face growing hot.

  “Do they know how soon I’m going to have my tongue between your legs?”

  My mouth fell open.

  “Do they know how loud I want to make you scream?”

  I couldn’t breathe.

  “Do they know how deep you’re going to take me?”

  My legs started to shake.

  “Do they know I’m getting hard right now, thinking about all the ways I want to fuck you tonight?”

  Sweet Jesus. I spun around and whispered in his ear, “If I was wearing panties, they’d be soaked.”

  He inhaled sharply.

  Ten seconds later, the doors opened and he grabbed my arm roughly, yanking me out behind him. He moved down the hall so fast I could barely keep up in my heels, and the moment the hotel room door shut behind us, he pushed me back against it. My evening bag hit the floor.

  His mouth covered mine, his tongue driving between my lips as his fingers hitched my dress up to my hips. He groaned when he realized I’d told the truth, running his palms down over my bare ass and up the sides of my thighs. I pushed at his jacket, forgetting about taking my time to undress him and thinking only about what was beneath the layers of dress clothes. I needed to feel his bare skin on mine, needed those hard muscles flexing above me, needed his power and strength and size to overwhelm me.

  He let his jacket fall to the ground and my fingers fumbled with the knot in his tie. But it was hard to concentrate because he moved one hand between my legs and his touch paralyzed me—he slid his fingers back and forth along the slick seam at my center and circled them gently over my clit. I finally got the damn knot to come loose just as he slipped two fingers inside me, and I clutched his shoulders, melting against him.

  “I want to be right here.” His voice was low and raw and intense. He pushed his fingers deep.

  “Yes,” I whimpered, riding his hand. “I want you there.” I ran my palm over the bulge in his pants, wishing I could rip that gorgeous suit to shreds with my teeth like a wolf. God, I’d missed this feeling, this side of myself. Letting it take over was a relief and a pleasure and a high better than any I could imagine.

  Jack dropped down and buried his face between my thighs, his tongue swirling over my clit. My legs trembled, and he slung one then the other over his broad shoulders. Then he stood up, my back sliding up the door, my hands flattening on the ceiling. Holy fuck, he was strong! Holding me there on his shoulders, his hands gripping my waist, he sucked my clit, flicking it with his tongue until I was writhing and gasping and making so much noise, I was positive the people in the elevator could hear us, no matter what floor they were on. Probably the people in the lobby too, and maybe even the people still at the DIA.

  And yes—I screamed his name and begged for more.

  He set me on the floor and I went at him like a cyclone, yanking off his tie and shirt and shoving down his pants. After wriggling out of my shoes and dress, I pushed him backward into the room and onto the bed, where I dragged off the rest of his clothes. Climbing onto his body, I straddled his hips, took his dick in my hand, and rubbed the tip between my legs. “You don’t know how much I missed this.”

  “You’re fucking crazy if you think that,” he said, groaning as I slid onto him. His hands moved to my breasts, his thumbs flicking my nipples.

  I bit my lip as I took him in deep and rocked my hips over his. He sat up, his mouth closing over one tight, hard peak, his fingers pinching the other. He sucked and bit and teased, lifting his hips to match my rhythm, both of us moving faster and faster. When he said my name, I knew he was close.

  “Jack,” I whispered. “I want you on top.”

  In two seconds, he’d flipped me onto my back and covered my body with his. Yes, yes, yes, I thought as his weight pinned my hips to the bed, as his cock drove deep and hard, as the muscles of his arms and chest and back and ass worked beneath my roving hands. I loved the gravity of him, the power he wielded, the punishing thrust of his hips. I loved the growl in his voice, the sweat on his skin, the roughness of his hands in my hair. I loved that he’d come here for me, that he wanted me in his life, that he was willing to make such drastic changes to have me.

  And as all the coiled-up tension in our bodies released in powerful, rippling contractions that stopped our breath and stole our sight and splintered every last wall between us, somehow I knew in my heart and soul that I would love this man forever.

  I would heal him, cherish him, adore him. I would believe in him, support him, work with him. He would be a lover, a husband, a father. And I would stay with him for the rest of my life.

  But for now, I’d enjoy the fall.

  Thirty-Six

  Epilogue

  Jack

  I woke up even earlier than usual, but I wasn’t surprised.

  Today was a big day.

  After checking to make sure that Margot was still asleep, I slipped out of our bed without even kissing her cheek like I wanted to. I couldn’t risk waking her up.

  Quickly and quietly, I hurried down the hall. When I passed the room that used to be Cooper’s, I smiled. It was empty right now, and Cooper was asleep in his new “big boy” room across the street, but I hoped it would contain a crib and rocker again soon. Maybe even within a year.

  My heart tripped with excitement as I took the stairs down a few at a time, careful not to hit any of the ones that creaked. I knew this house so well—its familiarity was a comfort to me. When I’d first moved out of the cabin, I’d been worried it would feel too big for me. I’d thought living there alone might make me sad, remind me I had no family of my own to fill it with.

  But I hadn’t been alone for long.

  For a few months, Margot and I had dated long distance, but by Thanksgiving, I’d asked her to move in with me. She already spent several days a week up here, had clothes in the closet, a toothbrush in the bathroom, a table she used as a desk in a spare bedroom.

  Hell, she had a horse in my barn.

  I loved when she was here and hated when she left. My days were always better when I kissed her good morning, and my nights were always better when I held her close. I still battled anxiety and nightmares sometimes, but Margot took it all in stride. She was my calm, my rock, my haven. She pushed back when I needed it and let me breathe when I didn’t. She understood me. She loved me.

  And I loved her.

  Silently closing the kitchen door behind me, I remembered when we first said the words, not too long after we began dating seriously. She’d come up to help me move into the house, and after a long day of cleaning and hauling and unpacking and organizing, she said she had a surprise for me.

  It was a bubble bath.

  I had to laugh as she undressed me and told me to get in the tub. But the scent of those bubbles and the feel of her wet skin beneath my palms took me back to a night months before, when I’d felt close enough to her to tell her everything.

  Something in me must have known even then.

  And as she rested her body on mine, her head on my chest, I wrapped my arms around her and felt an overwhelming sense of peace and warmth and gratitude that I was alive and well and here with her.

  “I love you,” I said out of nowhere.

  She went completely still and then picked up her head. Her eyes searched mine and saw I was serious. “Jack,” she whispered.

  “Those are words that have never come easy to me, and I probably won’t say them nearly as often as I should, but I want you to know that I do.”

  Her eyes filled. “I know. And I love you, too.”

  Margot didn’t seem to mind that I didn’t say the words much, even though I thought them—felt them—all the time. In fact, she told me she liked that it wasn’t something I threw out there casually. It meant more to her when she heard them, she said, knowing that they didn’t come easy.

  And maybe the words didn’t, but the feeling sure as hell did. I’d only loved one other woman, and I’d known her so long I couldn’t re
member falling for her this way—fast and hard and head over heels. I’d loved Steph deeply, but I loved Margot with a kind of intensity that shocked me. I hadn’t known I was capable of it.

  It made me want things—a ring on her finger, my last name on her driver’s license, a house full of kids.

  I’d never be rich, never be able to give her all the things she’d grown up with, never own a vacation home in L’Arbre Croche or a Mercedes Benz. But I knew Margot well enough by now to know that she didn’t care about those things as much as she cared about me. About us. Oh, she was still a city girl, even when she wore her jeans and boots, but dammit, she was my city girl, and I loved her beyond words.

  I smiled as I let myself into the chicken coop and slipped my hand into my pocket.

  I didn’t like surprises, but Margot did.

  I wanted to give her the surprise of her life.

  Margot

  I woke up and reached for Jack. He’d promised me he’d stay in bed a little longer this morning, since it was kind of a special day—the anniversary of the day we met.

  Sometimes we looked back on that day and laughed at the way we’d stood there staring at each other across the kitchen, him broody and mean, me trying to be charming. “Was it love at first sight?” people sometimes asked us.

  “Hell, no,” Jack would tease. “I didn’t want any rich city girl hanging around.”

  “And I couldn’t stand him,” I’d say. “He was dirty, sweaty, and rude.”

  But we belonged together, and it hadn’t taken us that long to figure it out, all things considered. I’d gone back and forth for a while, but I’d been thrilled when he’d asked me to move in. Farm life was a bit of an adjustment at first—the smells, the early mornings, the never-ending list of chores to be done—but I grew to appreciate things about living in the country. I loved the quiet mornings, the lack of traffic, the charm of the small town, the sun rising over the lake and setting over the trees, the skies full of stars at night. When I missed the shops or bars or salons or restaurants, I’d zip down and meet my friends for an afternoon or evening. But I found I didn’t miss city life too much, and I loved being around horses again.